38 BIRD WORLD, 



a noisy group there would soon be about the bread ; 

 and if some lucky fellow should fly off with a large 

 crumb, how the others would hurry after, and leave 

 him no peaceful moment in which to eat it. 



Country boys and girls know, too, how very ill- 

 mannered even motherly old hens will be, and how 

 undignified they will look if you throw a handful of 

 grain into their midst. 



You will therefore be surprised, I feel sure, at the 

 story I am going to tell you about the politest bird I 

 know. No princess in a fairy tale could be brought 

 up by her anxious parents to have better manners 

 than this handsome bird. 



His name and his picture you will find on the 

 preceding page, and some of you who live among the 

 hills where the red cedars stand covered all winter 

 with spicy smelling berries, will know from his name 

 what he eats in winter and early spring. 



When you hear that he is called Cherry Bird as 

 well, you will all know what he eats in summer, and I 

 think you will wish you could get your cherries as 

 easily as he can his. 



One morning in August a gentleman saw several 

 Cedar Birds fly into a small tree on which bunches of 

 wild cherries were hanging. On one limb he saw 

 two birds sitting side by side, one of them with a 

 cherry in his beak. 



